The last echoes of the final buzzer dissipated to silence and fans decked in green exited with barely a murmur. LeBron James had just clinched his eighth straight trip to the NBA Finals, but before celebrating in the quiet TD Garden, he scanned the parquet floor. He was looking for Jayson Tatum.
The biggest star in the NBA, the greatest player of this generation, one of the five best players in history had something he needed to say to the 20-year-old rookie.
And so James embraced the youngster who had just played his guts out in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the tune of 24 points and one very loud dunk in James' face, nearly single-handedly keeping the Celtics alive as teammates wilted under the glare and misfired like so many jammed rifles.
The two spoke for maybe 10 or 15 seconds, James commanding the conversation. He clearly admires and respects Tatum's game, and he wanted to convey that message.
Tatum grew up as part of the LeBron generation, and once even asked for a Twitter follow as a tween. Now the two were sharing the same stage, and James recognized something that has Celtics fans dying for the start of training camp.
He saw the future.
"I just love everything about the kid -- the way he plays the game, his demeanor, where he comes from," James said after Cleveland's 87-79 victory. "I know his parents. I just know he's built for stardom."
And so it is that as the Celtics end this truly unbelievable season just six minutes shy of the NBA Finals, they can take solace in the fact that this is only the beginning of a run that could very shortly make them the kings of Boston sports as the Patriots wind down their dynasty and basketball explodes in popularity.
"That was a special moment for me, because it's different," Tatum said of the postgame words he shared with James. "It's my first year in the league. I grew up watching LeBron and asking him to follow me back on Twitter, going to his camps. So just to be in my first year, to be able to compete against a player like him and be a few shots away from beating him and his team to go to the championship, that's something I'll always remember."
It's worth repeating one final time: the Celtics had no business lasting this long, and even after blowing a 12-point lead in Game 7, there's no shame in falling short. The experience gained by both Tatum and 21-year-old Jaylen Brown should pay enormous dividends down the road, especially as each matures into the stars they're on the road to becoming.
If the seven players who carried the Celtics to the brink of the last dance represented the sole returning talent next year, we'd still be talking about them as potential finalists. But add injured All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to the mix, and suddenly you're looking at a legitimate championship contender.
"Training camp can't come soon enough," head coach Brad Stevens said.
The positivity starts with Tatum, but it doesn't end there. A year ago, Brown barely dented the playoff rotation, his contributions limited to hustle plays and bursts of athleticism. This year he averaged 18 points a game in the playoffs, topped 20 eight times, and showed toughness by missing only one game with a hamstring strain in the second round.
He left the Garden looking downtrodden after shooting just 5-for-18 and 3-for-12 on 3-pointers, but he'll be back.
"The pain is part of the path," Stevens said.
Terry Rozier emerged as an athletic, penetrating point guard who protects the ball. Now that he knows he can lead a team to Game 7 of the conference finals, he'll have that much more confidence as Irving's backup next year.
Up and down the roster, what was left of the Celtics impressed the players in the visiting locker room who had just barely outlasted them.
"They're going to be a good team for many years," said Cavs guard George Hill. "I think they have a great core, even with their main guys out. Great coaching staff. To come into the Garden, with all the history that's here, to win on their floor Game 7, to go to a Finals, couldn't be better. You got to tip your hat off to those guys over there. It wasn't an easy fight."
Someday, the Celtics will recognize this series as their first real taste. Just as LeBron lost his first Finals to the Spurs in 2007, or Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden fell to James' Heat five years later, future champions don't usually get it right on the first try.
It's a process, to steal a phrase, and the Celtics accelerated theirs this year. That's why James wanted to huddle with one of Boston's burgeoning young stars when it was over, and why no around here would object if training camp started tomorrow.
